BusterStronghart@Gmail.com

http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/bushwick/bushwick.html
 
Dear Kevin.
 
I found your site when Googling Arion Mansion.
 
 
My grandfather was honored at a dinner at Arion Mansion in 1939. I was just given an invitation to it-- "$1.25 per plate." He was honored for his "lifelong devotion to the Labor Movement." by the "Social-Democratic Federation, Branch 1, of Williamsburg. "
 
Dr. Cook's mansion was inhabited by a Doctor until just before the riots. I can't recall his name right now, but I do recall his neat, very tiny, handwriting. He was a British West Indian. He had a very large practice.
 
The Katz Family owned a drug store, Katz Drug Store, on Moore Street, which was moved to Graham Avenue from 1898 until 1995. It is one of the busiest independent drug stores in New York City. The store is still in action and is now owned by Kamlesh Patel.
 
I used to deliver first aid supplies to Schaefer Brewery and to Rheingold. Rheingold occupied the top of a hill between Flushing and Bushwick. It was almost a campus, though the fragrance of brewing hops was always in the air. The offices were worth photographing, and I hope that somewhere someone has photos of the buildings and the offices. The Liebmann family "spared no expense" in their buildings and the woodworking in the offices. the paneling might have been imported from an ancient castle in Germany....
 
You describe Bushwick Avenue as having previously been known as "the Boulevard." Before that it was Jamaica Plank Road. I assume that it was an Indian trail leading to Jamaica that the Dutch had planked over making a corduroy road. Do you know the derivation of corduroy?
 
My Grandfather and his family lived above the store and there was a speaking tube (a rubber hose with brass mouth mouthpieces at either end) that went from their apartment upstairs to the store. They were always on call, and during the 1918 influenza epidemic they stayed open 24 hours a day for weeks...
 
Later they moved to Bushwick Avenue on the street where Hylan's family lived. Still later to Brooklyn Heights. My grandfather lived in the St. George Hotel until he died in 1956.
 
Michael E. Katz